Civilization

December 6, 2015

Last night I went to an symphonic/choral concert by a well-known and internationally respected orchestra. The performance started late because the same hosting institution is gaga about basketball and there must have been an important game just before, traffic was snarled and gnarled.
And today I was looking to see if I could find film for a Minox B I have in my collection.
This all reminds me, at least in the judeochristian ethic, it seems a prime and consistent tenet is to rise above being an animal. Humans are charged with something more. I’ve seen videos of a crow making a tool and using it to get food. Very clever. Most things that most people do are similar – very clever.
But I suspect that only humans ask “why?” or try to engage deeper meanings via artistic expression – the Hallelujah Chorus I heard last night doesn’t require a religious being to feel something incredibly moving.

Marx said something to the effect that religion is the opiate for the masses.
I think he was not quite right. Team sports are. It is good that violence and warfare have been largely sublimated by team sports, but the way in which these activities are encouraged and followed – to the detraction of real human accomplishment in the arts and sciences – emphasizes that most humans still behave as tribal beings, not far removed from other mammals.

Religion can of course be all about prayers and hymns and ministers and priests. It can also be the quiet internal movement that occurs within when that rare bit of human creativity is evident – for me that understanding is in music (how can one not be awed By the structure of a Bach fugue? By v.Beethoven’s piano works (especially the 4th concerto)? By Zappa’s schizoid fusion of classical sensibilities with a pop overlay, all while thinly hiding a tremendous cynicism for it all including those who would claim it to be great?)

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